Movie 121: The Blood Lands (White Settlers)

Starring: Pollyanna McIntosh, Lee Williams, Joanne Mitchell, James McCreadie, Dominic Kay.

Director: Simeon Halligan.

I've heard a few good things about this Scottish import, originally titled White Settlers but changed to the less provocative The Blood Lands later, with at least one positive review coming from a trusted friend, so I'm curious about it.  More or less it's another film I'm going in blind on-other than the aforementioned snippets of positive reactions-at least in terms of plot.  We have a pretty and stylish credits sequence with sad piano music, so there's that.  

Pretty standard opener: a young couple purchases a house and land on a site of historical turmoil(with beautiful country views, though) and, well, something bad will certainly come of it.  The couple seem kinda like hipster dicks, so obviously they have it coming.  The leads don't have an awful lot of chemistry together, but the lead-Pollyanna McIntosh as Sarah-seems pretty much up to the task of bringing an interesting character to the screen.  Lee Williams-as her husband/boyfriend(not clear) Ed-is coming off as a bit of a jerk, which is likely intentional.  He decides to agree to Sarah's request to live in the Scottish Fixer-upper(despite having a lot of mean things to say about Scotland which, I dunno, I always thought I'd like Scotland) and we have a montage of house fixing.

Seriously, Ed: tone it down, buddy.  It seems every other word is basically making fun of Scotland and the people who live in Scotland.  Then Sarah blindfolds him and things get sexy.  At least the movie has shown us that they can have fun together, but considering how the chemistry isn't there, I hope we get to the fireworks factory, too.  The movie is doing a decent job developing the characters, but after Maggie I'm kinda hoping for, y'know, some carnage.

Pictured: Carnage.

Sarah: "I think there's someone outside."
Ed promptly gets back into bed.  Geez.

Decent misdirect scare that will hopefully blossom into an actual one soon.  The film is actually progressing nicely enough.  So far, so good.  I do hope Ed puts some pants on.  Damn it, Sarah, I didn't say YOU should put pants on.  Interestingly enough, we seem to suggesting that the lack of chemistry between them may actually be deliberate: we seem to be getting a story of two people making a huge step together that they may not actually be ready for.  While there are been a few bumps and sounds in the night, the real tension has been coming from friction between the two leads: Sarah seems easily freaked out, Ed easily annoyed.  Ed wants to make light of things, Sarah finds that obnoxious.  I'm with Sarah, of course: not a fan of Ed so far.

Hmm.  Looks like we might have a home invasion thriller on our hands.  I tend to like those well enough, depending on their level of restraint.  In this case, we got a trio of dudes in pig masks, which make for intense enough visuals.  Ed seems like he may already be a goner, though to Sarah's credit she screams questions about his fate.  But now she's on the run from our psychopaths (my guess is that they're the sons of the previous tenant discussed briefly by the realtor) with plenty of space to provide different scenarios.  So maybe this could be fun.  So far it's mostly Sarah runs, hides, is nearly spotted, and then she runs again and it repeats itself.  

Okay, Sarah finds and manages to rescue Ed, so at least we've made some headway. The pair together manage to take out their assailants in a decent combat sequence, but now both Sarah and Ed are injured.  Ed comes up with a pretty dumb plan of splitting up, with him providing a distraction.  It's noble of him, but it's always a terrible plan.  Especially when you yell "hey, over here" which just lets your assailant know it's a distraction.  But, while these assailants are fairly well organized, they don't seem exceptionally intelligent, so...well, they certainly seem to be falling for Ed's simple ruse.

Ed knocks one of his assailants out and then...jesus, man, hesitates and pokes the guy?  Grab the dudes ax, and run for it...or just get grabbed by the neck and try to wrestle yourself away from a guy who outweighs you by fifty or sixty pounds.  Good work, Ed.  Luckily, his attackers are dumber than he is so Ed manages to...aww, forget it.  Get stuck in a bear trap.  You suck at escaping, Ed.

Sarah, honey, you're being hunted.  Stop yelling your husbands name into the darkness.  Well, she gets some water and some directions from a young boy in soccer clothing.  I was pretty certain she was being led into a trap, but she has instead found a nice clearing, the main road and sunlight instead.  I mean, it's still not looking super positive for her: injured leg and the main road is certainly not salvation(especially since the first vehicle she comes across will almost certainly be her attackers).  

We should be coming up on the end soon enough.  Sarah has been caught and tossed into the back of a van...oh, this is interesting.  Nice ending.  We see a family reunion of sorts at the house, and then find Sarah and Ed injured and tied up but alive back in civilization.  The bad guys clearly didn't want to kill them, just scare them away and take their house back.  I like that restraint: a movie focusing on terrorizing rather than butchering.  It doesn't quite make total sense since, well, the couple could pretty easily lead authorities back to the house they legally purchased and have the people hanging out there arrested but...it still works well enough for me.

Final Thoughts: So so build with a little bit of tension and suspense but not nearly as much as I think could have been mustered...with that much space it may have been a stronger move to increase feelings of claustrophobia in contrast but, hey, we have what we have.  As noted above, the strong ending is really what make it all work in the long run.  Decent little flick.

Final Rating: Three Stars.